


a life to be lived with you

by azurill



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: F/F, joel lives because i wanted serotonin, these gay bitches gettin married! good for them. good for them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-07-18
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:21:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25368274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/azurill/pseuds/azurill
Summary: "When we kissed in that party... did you imagine we'd end up like this?" Dina asks, voice featherlight. "Getting married?"
Relationships: Dina/Ellie (The Last of Us)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 240





	a life to be lived with you

When Dina requests something, there's few things Ellie says no to. She knows better than to ask for something Ellie won't give or agree to, knows Ellie like the palm of her hand. It was no different this time around. Ellie's still pretty sure she'll need to rest for two weeks to compensate for the amount of time she spent socializing the night of their wedding party, but it's worth it to see the love of her life happy like that. 

All the tiredness seeps out of her body when she gets a glimpse of Dina enjoying herself and it happens often enough to keep her grounded and content — so all things considered, Ellie's having a good time. The alcohol doesn't hurt. Neither does the view. Her eyes drink in the white of Dina's knee-length dress, the silver of her earrings, the way her dark hair cascades down her shoulders... she looks _absolutely_ gorgeous. Ellie is nowhere as well-dressed as her, clad only in her best linen black pants and a button-up maroon shirt, her hair pulled back into a low bun. It's not a fancy party, it's just that Dina always took great joy in looking nice. 

And she does.

"I'm happy for you, babygirl," comes Joel's voice beside her. He has JJ on his lap, the toddler happily nodding off against his chest, exhausted from all the running and jumping he did. Their chairs sit close to each other, though they haven’t spoken a word to each other in ten or twenty minutes. 

It's a miracle that she met up with Jesse before venturing into the ski lodge in that snowy patrol morning — that they found Joel early enough for him to still be alive, still safe enough to be brought back to Jackson and nursed back to health. He's got a limp on his leg from the bullet that turned his knee into shreds. It will never go away, much like the healed scar on the left side of his face. 

(Sometimes she wishes she had killed that woman. If she comes back, there'll be no second chance, Ellie decided.)

The months following that event were terribly long, filled with nightmares and sleepless nights spent next to Joel's bed. She still has trouble eating, and her skin hurts when the anxiety becomes too much. She still dreams of the what ifs. _What if she came back to finish the job? What if she came for Dina this time? For JJ?_ Ellie closes her eyes tightly, aware of where her mind is taking her, and she's not allowing it. Not this time.

She focuses on Joel and his comforting presence, on JJ and his soft snoring, on Dina and the tilt of her smile as she animatedly talks to one of her patrol buddies. All things she'd never be privy to had Joel not saved her life all these years ago.

"Thanks, Joel," she lets out the words she's wanted to say for so long, means each syllable so much. For a second, she thinks about hugging him. They were never too big into physical demonstrations of affection. It's not the language in which they speak. She settles for laying a hand on his arm and mentally promises to hug him later, when he isn’t looking too comfortable on his seat. "Thank you," Ellie repeats.

Joel looks at her in his own gentle, attentive way. His eyes are wet with unshed tears. Then he nods, mumbles out a non-answer, and gets back to watching the crowd from a decent distance. 

Ellie does the same. 

“You should take that girl of yours to dance.”

She turns to look at Joel again, a smile tugging on the corner of her mouth. He's quietly shushing JJ after he made a rather disgruntled sound. “Think it’s too late for her to back out? I can't dance. Hell of a deal-breaker."

“I reckon she already knows that," Joel smiles back. When they were travelling across the entire country — even when they first settled in Jackson — she never saw him smile much. That too changed. "Doesn't seem to mind."

Ellie follows his suggestion some time later, finding herself on the dance floor. The wedding band on Dina's ring finger feels cold against her skin when the shorter girl holds guides her hands to each side of her hips. Ellie accepts the invitation and pulls her impossibly closer, their heads leaning against each other's as they softly sway to the music. 

Two minutes in, Ellie barely avoids stepping on her feet. 

"Watch it, Williams."

“You’re a Williams too," Ellie grins, unable to stop the giddiness she's felt the entire night. Her best friend — _wife_ , she reminds herself — does the same. 

“Dina Williams," she muses, pretending to give it a lot of thought, like they haven't talked about the implications of their marriage a thousand times before. "Doesn’t sound too bad. I can do that.”

"You're already doing that, stupid."

Dina smashes their cheeks together, rubbing sweat on her not unlike all these years ago in that same place. There's a hint of whiskey in her scent, though it's not unpleasant. They joke and trade barbs and laugh and then come down from the high, settling into a calmer, softer mood. For a moment it's like the entire world becomes background noise, like it's only them for miles. 

"When we kissed in that party... did you imagine we'd end up like this?" Dina asks, voice featherlight. "Getting married?"

"Well, you didn't exactly seem like the marriage type— _ow_ , what the fuck, Dee. My fucking _arm._ "

"I'm serious." 

Ellie thinks about it. It's a bit of a difficult task to manage when Dina's voice is being directly whispered into her ear when she speaks. "I didn't think I'd get this far."

"Ouch."

"No, I—I don't mean it like that." Ellie searches for the right words. "It's not that I didn't think I'd get this far with you. I just— didn't think I'd get this far. You know, to, uh, have a family and stuff. Thought I'd get shot on the head before that. Or something."

"That's grim."

Ellie can't figure the tone of her voice out. A rare occurence. She asks, suddenly curious, "What about you?" 

"You didn't exactly seem like the marriage type either," Dina teasingly answers after a few moments of consideration. The statement earns a chuckle from Ellie. It's not exactly untrue. "But I always had a feeling it'd happen."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know. It just made sense."

Dina's nose brushes against hers and Ellie's heart is pounding against her chest. Dina, and JJ, and Joel, and _this_ — it's all worth fighting for, worth everything that happened until she arrived to this time and place. "I love you," she confesses for the third time that night, smile turning wider when Dina says she loves her, too.

**Author's Note:**

> writing this was such a welcome break from all the angsty shit i'm working on. hope u like this too 💞


End file.
